New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) Virtual hearings by the Supreme Court and the high courts have helped litigants, including the underprivileged, as it led to considerable saving of time and money, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Virtual hearings also helped the entire legal ecosystem, including vulnerable litigants, to have recourse to justice delivery system, particularly during the Covid pandemic when congregational mode of court hearings could not be held due to the lockdown and distancing protocols, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said in reply to a written question.

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"However, whether open physical courts will operate along with virtual hearing is an administrative matter which falls within the purview and domain of the judiciary for taking a decision," he said.

Rijiju said virtual hearing of cases by high courts and the Supreme Court "helped litigants, including the underprivileged litigants, as it helps litigants to appear before the court from any location of their choice thus leading to considerable saving of time and money".

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Since the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed in March 2020, district courts heard 1,11,40,223 cases, while the high courts heard 60,21,688 cases -- totalling 1.71 crore -- till January 31, 2022 using video conference, he informed the House.

The Supreme Court held 2,18,891 hearings till March 14 this year since the beginning of the lockdown.

"To bring about uniformity and standardisation in the conduct of video conference, an overarching order was passed by the Supreme Court of India on April 6, 2020 which gave legal sanctity and validity to the court hearings done through VC. Further, VC rules were framed by a five-judge committee which was circulated to all the high courts for adoption after local contextualisation. A total of 23 high courts have implemented video conference rules," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)